Boeing Defense & Space Group division who is the main NASA space station contractor and Khrunichev State Research and Production Centre signed a contract on ISS cargo block service life extension to the year 2020.

According to the terms and conditions of the contract Boeing invests about 70 million dollars in the program, – the President of Boeing branch in Russia Sergey Kravchenko reported. According to him the money will be spent on ISS functional cargo block reconstruction and failure-free operation by the year 2020 or even by 2028, – he specified.

In accordance with the terms and conditions of the contract Russian Centre is to develop, manufacture, test and deliver “Zarya” functional cargo-block main components to ensure its safe and failure-free operation – as companies release states.

“Zarya” was manufactured by Khrunichev Centre in compliance with the contract concluded with Boeing Company and successfully launched from Baikonur spaceport in 1998.

It is one of the largest but not the sole contract concluded in the framework of space cooperation, Kravchenko specified.